OCLC Launches New WorldShare Platform

By George Eberhart | December 5, 2011

OCLC announced the release of a new platform December 5 that will let its member libraries create, configure, and share a growing number of new services and web-based library applications. The new OCLC WorldShare Platform, a shared technical infrastructure, will serve as the host for OCLC WorldShare Management Services, a significant expansion of the Dublin, Ohio–based nonprofit’s Webscale Management Services that launched July 1 after a year of testing by early adopters.

The earlier system had already streamlined library workflows by moving acquisitions, circulation, and license management into a cloud-computing network, thereby reducing software support costs. The new platform allows participating libraries to add service applications—whether built by themselves, by partner libraries, or by OCLC—to the cloud network hosted at OCLC data centers.

This week, OCLC is opening a data center in the United Kingdom, its first outside the United States. Additional data centers will be deployed in continental Europe, Australia, and Canada in 2012 that will support performance, reliability, and scalability in the expanding OCLC cooperative.

OCLC Global Marketing Vice President Cathy De Rosa told American Libraries, “The new OCLC WorldShare Platform will provide libraries with the infrastructure they need to create and share applications and services that deliver new functionality and value for libraries and their users.” She added, “Public and academic library users can look forward to accessing a wealth of new content, apps, and innovations that these new collaborations will enable.”

In coming weeks, participants from libraries in the WorldShare pilot program will work with members of the OCLC Developer Network to help create and build applications for a new WorldShare App Gallery. From this gallery, member libraries can download and install locally developed software to enhance and extend core functionality.

Access to the app gallery is open to everyone. Developers at libraries with active subscriptions to one or more OCLC products can test any of the web services available through the WorldShare Platform. To install apps into a production environment, a library must be a subscriber to the relevant service.

As of launch day, more than 30 libraries are using the OCLC WorldShare Management Services, and more than 150 libraries worldwide have agreed to adopt the new service.

“OCLC WorldShare provides a web-based platform for collective innovation across shared services, integrated applications, and streamlined library workflows,” said OCLC President and CEO Jay Jordan. “In combination with WorldCat, WorldShare will support the work of libraries of all types to collaborate in new, more efficient ways; reduce operating costs; and provide greatly enhanced user experiences.”

Share

Tagged Under

Related Articles

Latest Library Links

2d

Cyrus Farivar writes: “Crypto nerds have now firmly set their sights on public libraries, with the ultimate goal of setting up Tor exit relays in as many as possible. As of now, only about 1,000 exit relays exist worldwide. If this plan is successful, it could vastly increase the scope and speed of the famed anonymizing network. The plan is being executed by the Library Freedom Project, a group trying to get libraries to incorporate more privacy tools into their everyday operations.”

Activists worried about online privacy are sending Congress a message with some old-school technology: They’re sending faxes—more than 6.2 million, they claim—to express opposition to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act. Why faxes? “Congress is stuck in 1984 and doesn’t understand modern technology,” according to the campaign Fax Big Brother. The week-long campaign was organized by the nonpartisan Electronic Frontier Foundation and the activist group Fight for the Future.

Katrina Schwartz writes: “Some adults worry that kids’ reading for pleasure is in danger of disappearing. But creative school librarians are proving there are plenty of great ways to get kids excited about reading on their own. Michelle Luhtala, librarian at New Caanan (Conn.) High School, is implementing many innovative ideas to get kids reading in her school; she also asked colleagues to weigh in with their own ideas to promote independent reading at every grade level.”

ALA Editions will host a new four-week facilitated eCourse, “Innovative Approaches to Library Instruction: Online to Face-to-Face,” taught by Paul Signorelli and starting on September 14. The eCourse will cover a survey of Connected Learning, the Flipped Classroom model, connectivist MOOCs, and innovations in learning spaces that support various approaches to learning in libraries. Registration can be purchased through the ALA Store.

ALA Editions will host a new six-week facilitated eCourse, “Intermediate Instructional Design for Information Literacy,” with Cinthya Ippoliti as the instructor, starting on September 14. The eCourse is designed as a case study where you will work with an existing instructional problem that you will resolve through the design thinking process. Registration is available through the ALA Store.

ALA Editions, in collaboration with the San Jose State University School of Information, is offering a new 12-week Advanced eCourse, “Copyright 101,” beginning on September 14 and facilitated by Mary Minow, attorney, librarian, and copyright expert. The course will be delivered entirely online with coursework completed asynchronously. Registration may be purchased through the ALA Store.